AgentLayer Started as a Notion Doc. Now It Has a Pricing Page.
From a scrappy Notion doc to a product with a pricing page: the building-in-public journey of AgentLayer.
Six months ago, AgentLayer was a Notion document with a list of ideas and a rough architecture sketch. Today it has a landing page, a pricing page, a waitlist, and real people waiting to use it. Here's what changed — and what I learned about going from idea to product without over-building.
Phase 1: The Notion Doc
Every product starts as a document. Mine was a Notion page with three sections: the problem, the proposed solution, and a list of features I thought I needed. The problem section was clear — businesses struggle to build reliable AI agents because the tooling is fragmented. The solution section was a one-paragraph pitch. The features list had 23 items.
I showed it to a developer friend. He said: "Which of these 23 features does someone need to use your product for the first time?" I stared at the list and realized the answer was three. Not twenty-three. Three.
"The first version of your product should be embarrassing. If it's not, you shipped too late."
Phase 2: The Landing Page
Before writing any product code, I built a landing page. Not because I was ready to launch, but because I needed to know if anyone cared. The page described the problem, showed a mockup, and had a single email capture field. I shared it in two WhatsApp groups and a LinkedIn post.
Within a week, 47 people had signed up for the waitlist. That was my signal. Not 47 customers — 47 people who were curious enough to type their email. But curiosity is the precursor to commitment, and 47 was enough to justify building the next thing.
Phase 3: The Pricing Page
The pricing page was the hardest decision. Not because pricing is hard to design (it is), but because putting a price on something forces you to define what it is. A free tool is whatever you want it to be. A paid product has to deliver a specific value to a specific person.
I went with three tiers: a free tier for trying it out, a pro tier for individual builders, and a custom tier for teams that need support and integrations. The prices aren't final. But the act of writing them down forced me to answer: who is this for, and what problem does it solve that justifies paying?
What I'd Do Differently
- →I'd build the landing page even earlier — before the Notion doc. The market's response to a description is cheaper feedback than any architecture planning.
- →I'd talk to 10 of those 47 waitlist signups before writing product code. I talked to 4. I should have talked to 10.
- →I'd resist the urge to add the other 20 features. They're still on a list somewhere. The product works fine without them.